Blind Spot: Two Works by Mehmet Dere
In the exhibition Blind Spot, hosted by Artsümer Gallery, Mehmet Dere presents two distinct works a handmade object and a charcoal drawing. These works come together to explore profound meanings embedded in the mundane, inviting the audience on an intellectual journey.
The first piece, Tak Tak (2024), references the form of a door knocker, crafted in a simple yet poetic language. At the center of this work lies a potato, symbolizing nourishment and resilience. Dere's poetic reflection underscores the notion that silence is not a shield but an echoing reality:
"Hunger
Is a knocker without a door
Carried within you
Or as untold as a story,
It reverberates with every strike."
The form is situated in an evocative realm of "terra incognita of silence," where it appears functionless yet deeply meaningful. The potato, first domesticated in the Andes Mountains of South America approximately 8,000 years ago, only reached Europe in the mid-1500s before spreading westward and northward to the Americas and beyond. Historically, it has been a strategic crop, symbolizing sustenance and power. Citing historian William McNeill's 1999 article How the Potato Changed World History, Dere reminds us that "every military campaign on European soil after 1560, including during World War II, resulted in an expansion of potato cultivation."
In this context, Dere's work suggests an attempt to open a door in the map of silence, fully aware that compassion may be ridiculed as intellectual guilt, privilege masked as morality, and power preferred over virtue.
Dere's second work in the exhibition, Ora et Labora (2024), is a charcoal drawing depicting two hands bound together. The Latin phrase Ora et Labora, meaning "Pray and work," was a guiding principle for Benedictine monks during the Middle Ages, encapsulating their philosophy of life. Dere often incorporates such concise truths into his works, using them as conceptual anchors.
This phrase conveys the idea that labor, when offered with devotion, becomes a form of prayer. In Dere's artistic vision, prayer and work are inseparably linked, continuously pulling each other into a shared dynamic. In Christian theology, these actions are seen as pathways to becoming "better people." As the body and soul strengthen through labor and reflection, humanity is believed to draw closer to the divine.
Dere's piece, however, reinterprets this concept through a secular lens, suggesting that prayer can be understood as "the amount of faith embedded in one's work." For the artist, life is a blend of contemplation, action, and labor. Ora et Labora invite the viewer to see prayer not as a purely religious act but as an integral aspect of one's dedication and belief within their daily endeavors
